One reason people sometimes give for not doing their estate planning is that they don’t think their estate is complex enough. Maybe they don’t have multiple homes or properties. They don’t have complex investment portfolios. They don’t want to use trusts or give to charity. They just assume that the assets they have should go to their heirs, and that’s fairly straightforward.
While this line of thinking is understandable, it also overlooks a key fact: Estate planning can address simple things. It’s not just about complex assets.
For instance, who is going to pay off your credit cards? Who has the right to sell your home or sell your car? Once they do, what should happen with that money? Who can access your email accounts or social media accounts? What happens to your digital assets? Who is going to close down your bank accounts?
The simple logistics of getting everything in order may seem straightforward to you, but they can be overwhelming for family members. If they don’t even know what assets exist, much less how to access them, it can take a huge effort just to do something like figuring out where you have a bank account, who to contact at the bank, how to gain access and what to do with even a moderate amount of money in that account.
This is where estate planning can be helpful for anyone. Regardless of the size of your estate or how complex it is — or isn’t — you just want to learn how you can leave directions to help your heirs.